Telemetry issues resolved ahead of Spanish GP

The cockpit signalling system for F1 drivers will be fixed for the Spanish GP in one week time, race steward Derek Warwick said. The FIA has failed to get it working since it changed suppliers, but an update is set to resolve the problems.

Since the FIA decided to change its telemetry supplier, various issues have hampered the normal operation of the system.

Usually, drivers have a number of lights inside their cockpits to warn them of track signalling flags, a safety car or the whether DRS is enabled or disabled. The system was introduced several years ago to help the drivers, and worked well until the end of last season. For 2013, the new supplier failed to get it working in time, with initial problems actually being attributed to mice chewing through the cables.

Further issues required the FIA to shut the signalling system down until a fix was available. When talking to Reuters, race steward Derek Warwick says now there finally is a solution available: "We've been told they've got an upgrade which is going to Barcelona and then it'll be working from there".

He also admitted that during the problems, stewards were advised to be a little more lenient in case of flag infringements.

"You can't blame a driver if we've messed up in terms of the support package," he admitted, before warning drivers that official are not going soft. "The FIA has asked us to be lighter on fines for the drivers, but we still have the same tools available to us for other punishments."